Mars was never truly discovered, people one night a long time ago just decided to look into the sky and noticed a reddish spots in the sky. The ancient Egyptians named the planet,"Har Deucher" (translated as "The Red One") and the Babylonians in about 400 BC renamed the planet as "Nergal" (translated as "The Star of Death"). Following this period, the Greeks gave it the name of "Ares" (which in today's terms actually means, "wandering star") and it was not until the Romans rein that the current reference to the planet, "Mars" was introduced (after the God of War).There are severalintriguing features about mars like it has the biggest volcano known to man kind, there are several canyons and gorges from were water could have flowed through there in the past.
Composition and Origins
The crust of mars is believed to be 30 miles deep. Most of the crustis made of volcanic rock or basalt. There are some parts of the crust that could be andesite which is another form of volcanic rock which contains more silica than basalt. Mars' mantle was once active billions of years ago but is now dormant. If the core of mars is solid, the mantleis believed to be a soft rock paste. The mantle is composed primarily of silicates. Planetary scientists have found that Mars has a core region of about 1,480 km in radius. It consists mainly of iron, with up to 17% sulfur. Mars has a extremely thin atmosphere composed primarily of the tiny amount of remaining carbon dioxide plus nitrogen, argon, traces of oxygen, and remarkably little water. The average pressure on the surface of Mars is only about 7 millibars (less than 1% of Earth), but it varies tremendously with altitude from almost 9 millibars in the deepest basins to about 1 millibar at the top of Olympus Mons, but it is thick enough to support Mars' extraordinarily strong winds and vast dust storms that on occasion engulf the entire planet for months. Mars' thin atmosphere produces a greenhouse effect but it is only enough to promote the surface temperature by 5 degrees (K).
Observing
image courtesy of all American Patriots
To observers, Mars offers challenges and, with a little luck, delights. In a high-quality 4 or 6-inch telescope on a night of excellent steady air, you may be able to make out the north polar cloud hood, dark surface markings (depending which side of Mars is facing Earth at the time), limb hazes, occasional scattered white clouds, and possibly the bright patch of a fresh dust storm moving from day to day. For serious study of Mars, you should use a least a 4-inch refractor or a 6-inch reflector. The best telescope for an amateur to use is a 10-inch Newtonian reflector or popular Schmidt-Cassegrain (SCT) telescope. A 10-inch aperture is just about the size limit that has power capable of resolving the currents of air in our atmosphere. Anything larger may not be effective on nights of average air steadiness. Smaller telescopes sometimes can actually be more efficiently used on nights of poor seeing conditions than can larger telescopes. Use eyepieces of the highest quality, preferably of Orthoscopic or Plossl design, no matter what type of telescope is used. Top quality eyepieces permit the finest color correction, improved eye relief, and the best resolution as opposed to that obtainable by using cheap, inexpensive makes and designs. The Phoenix Mars Mission was launched in August 2007. It has sent back a lot of useful and exciting pictures. The pictures are in amazing quality because of the newer technology we are able to use. In some of the trenches the Phoenix dug you can actually see some kind of metal looking stuff that in fact is ice and soil ice, it also shows pictures of the barren waste land of the surface from ground level. Compared to the old rovers that have landed this is amazing to see these high quality of pictures with color even.
The Real Facts
Mars has the biggest volcano in the Solar System. Its name is Olympus Mons in Latin that means Mount Olympus. It is 15.5 miles tall and 372 miles in diameter. To compare Mount Everest is 5 to 6 miles tall. Mars also has the biggest canyon system in the Universe called the “Valles Marineris,” which is 4 miles deep and 2,500 miles long. That stuff is relevant because they are some of the biggest stuff in the universe. The word Mars is derived from the month of March. The very first spacecraft to visit Mars was the Mariner 4 in 1965. The first two spacecraft to land on Mars were the Viking Landers in 1976. The Mars Pathfinder made a successful landing in 1997. Surprisingly as Mars is much smaller than Planet Earth it has a surface area of about the same as our land surface area. Mars is about 14 million miles from the sun. A revolution for mars (or a year for Earth) is approximately 12,295 Earth Days. The length of a day on Mars is 49 hours and 12 minutes. The diameter of Mars is 4,456,789,399,309, 927,555 inches. The gravity of Mars is about 4 times greater that of Earth. When you look at Mars it has a tilt of 365 degrees. The mass of Mars is pretty close to 97 quadrillion tons. Once every 25 Months the Earth passes Mars up and it looks as though Mars is going backwards but it really isn't but that is called retrograde motion, other Planets do it as well just not so often as Earth and Mars. Mars has two moons named Phobos and Debris. The moon Phobos is extremely close to the Planets atmosphere and will eventually get crushed into bits.
Table of Contents
Composition and Origins
The crust of mars is believed to be 30 miles deep. Most of the crust is made of volcanic rock or basalt. There are some parts of the crust that could be andesite which is another form of volcanic rock which contains more silica than basalt. Mars' mantle was once active billions of years ago but is now dormant. If the core of mars is solid, the mantle is believed to be a soft rock paste. The mantle is composed primarily of silicates. Planetary scientists have found that Mars has a core region of about 1,480 km in radius. It consists mainly of iron, with up to 17% sulfur. Mars has a extremely thin atmosphere composed primarily of the tiny amount of remaining carbon dioxide plus nitrogen, argon, traces of oxygen, and remarkably little water. The average pressure on the surface of Mars is only about 7 millibars (less than 1% of Earth), but it varies tremendously with altitude from almost 9 millibars in the deepest basins to about 1 millibar at the top of Olympus Mons, but it is thick enough to support Mars' extraordinarily strong winds and vast dust storms that on occasion engulf the entire planet for months. Mars' thin atmosphere produces a greenhouse effect but it is only enough to promote the surface temperature by 5 degrees (K).
Observing
The Real Facts
Mars has the biggest volcano in the Solar System. Its name is Olympus Mons in Latin that means Mount Olympus. It is 15.5 miles tall and 372 miles in diameter. To compare Mount Everest is 5 to 6 miles tall. Mars also has the biggest canyon system in the Universe called the “Valles Marineris,” which is 4 miles deep and 2,500 miles long. That stuff is relevant because they are some of the biggest stuff in the universe. The word Mars is derived from the month of March. The very first spacecraft to visit Mars was the Mariner 4 in 1965. The first two spacecraft to land on Mars were the Viking Landers in 1976. The Mars Pathfinder made a successful landing in 1997. Surprisingly as Mars is much smaller than Planet Earth it has a surface area of about the same as our land surface area. Mars is about 14 million miles from the sun. A revolution for mars (or a year for Earth) is approximately 12,295 Earth Days. The length of a day on Mars is 49 hours and 12 minutes. The diameter of Mars is 4,456,789,399,309, 927,555 inches. The gravity of Mars is about 4 times greater that of Earth. When you look at Mars it has a tilt of 365 degrees. The mass of Mars is pretty close to 97 quadrillion tons. Once every 25 Months the Earth passes Mars up and it looks as though Mars is going backwards but it really isn't but that is called retrograde motion, other Planets do it as well just not so often as Earth and Mars. Mars has two moons named Phobos and Debris. The moon Phobos is extremely close to the Planets atmosphere and will eventually get crushed into bits.
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